Chapter 199: Vs. Colbert 2

Chapter 199: Vs. Colbert 2

「Fuh. You sure are impatient, trying to end the match right away like that.」

「Was just taking advantage of opening.」

「Haha. I never expected you to be this good a Magic Warrior. I’m impressed. Have you been holding back this whole time?」

「Back at you. Suddenly more magical energy?」

Fran wasn’t kidding. The amount of magical energy evelopping Colbert’s body had undergone a drastic increase.

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General Information

Name: Colbert

Age: 38

Species: Human

Class: Iron Fist Fighter

State: Normal

Status Level: 41/99

HP: 381/508

MP: 330/452

STR: 299

VIT: 204

AGI: 253

INT: 141

MGC: 201

DEX: 239

Skills

Barehanded Combat Techniques: Lv 6

Barehanded Combat Arts: Lv 6

Crisis Detection: Lv 3

Divine Fist Arts: Lv 2

Fist Techniques: Lv 9

Fist Arts: MAX

Combat Qigong: Lv 4

Herculean Strength: Lv 8

Blink: Lv 9

Swimming: Lv 4

Greater Water Resistance: Lv 2

Throwing: Lv 4

Life Magic: Lv 3

Dimitris Style Martial Techniques: Lv 8

Dimitris Style Martial Arts: Lv 8

Physical Barrier: Lv 4

Magic Emission: Lv 5

Drowsiness Resistance: Lv 3

Paralysis Resistance: Lv 4

Cooking: Lv 2

Hawk’s Eyes

Beast Killer

Thought Division

Lesser Strength Boost

Vigour Manipulation

Inherent Skills

Iron Fist

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It looked like he’d undone his seal. He’d suddenly gained several skills, namely the Dimitris Style ones, Physical Barrier, Magic Emission, and Thought Division. Both Herculean Strength and Blink had also had their levels boosted a bit. That, of course, wasn’t all; he gained a pretty massive boost to his stats. I recalled they used to be.

_______________________________________________________________

HP: 428

MP: 202

STR: 249

VIT: 154

AGI: 203

INT: 91

MGC: 101

DEX: 189

And... we also ended up unlocking a skill I’d been expecting, but not really all that keen on getting.

『Let’s go, Fran!』

「Nn!」

「What!? How are you suddenly no longer taking damage!?」

Colbert’s eyes widened as Fran began stepping forward while completely ignoring all his attacks. He didn’t stop, and continued to assault her, but she didn’t mind his strikes at all. At first, it seemed like she was trying to take damage in order to dish it out, but that wasn’t the case at all. Our two newly obtained skills made it so she didn’t have to to force herself into a trade.

It’d almost looked like she’d become flat out invincible.

But I was panicking nonetheless.

『Sheet, Rumina was right! That nullification skill is eating my mana ridiculously quickly! 』

Only a few moments had passed since we’d gotten the skill, but it’d already eaten up a whole 1000 mana. That was just how much energy it took to completely negate Colbert’s incoming attacks.

Again, the skill’s ridiculous mana consumption was something that Rumina had warned us about. Specifically, something she’d warned us about just before the tournament began.

***

「Master. That ability of yours is quite the powerful one, but warn you I must.」

『Warn me? About what?』

「I ask that you beware of skills capable of nullification. Some magic beasts carry them, and thus, I believe it very likely for you to one day obtain them. You must take utmost caution in their application.」

「Why caution?」

「Skills carrying effects akin to nullification bear the tendency to consume a great deal of magical energy to actualize their effects. Moreover, the skill’s function is automatic. You will not be able to stop them from activating, and thus, it is quite possible for you to quickly lose all your magical energy should you fight a foe capable of a vicious assault.」

In other words, Flame Invalidation would drain one’s mana pool extremely quickly if one decided to sit in a sea of flames or something.

The one Rumina emphasized as the one we should be the most careful with was Physical Damage Nullification. It was a skill typically possessed by monsters whose bodies were made of energy, so she wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if we were to acquire it. There was a chance it’d end up activating every single time we so much as took a step.

But that wasn’t all. She’d also warned us that nullification-type skills didn’t actually provide invulnerability. Certain skills would just go right through them.

According to Rumina, the Gods had made it so that nullification skills weren’t in fact the highest order of skill one could have. They could be broken through by both skills built to pierce defenses as well as skills containing the Gods’ powers.

Rumina herself had actually bore witness to one of these incidents; she’d seen Ignius use its Godflame skill to roast and kill someone that happened to have the Flame Nullification skill.

She’d warned that it was possible that the Beast Lord’s Golden Flame of Extinction skill also counted as a higher order skill.

「Do not let your guard down. Do not rely on nullification skills should you obtain them.」

「Got it.」

Our case was actually a bit different. We were able to choose whether or not we actually wanted a certain skill to be active, so, it was possible for us to avoid using any nullification skills we had unless we actually really needed them. They were quite perfect as far as trump cards went.

That said, I couldn’t actually switch the skill out as of right this moment, as Colbert was still in the middle of attacking us.

『Hurry up Fran! You’ll have to finish this real quick!』

「Nn!」

Fran raised me above her head and readied herself to a massive downwards swing — an opening Colbert failed to miss.

「Dimitris Style Secret Technique — Rupturing Strike!」

He poured his mana into his fist as he twisted it as he shoved it straight into Fran’s gut. But it was rendered null. The strike hadn’t even caused her to so much as flinch.

「Sheet! It had no effect!?」

Colbert’s attack hadn’t damaged Fran, but it’d contained so much force that it drained another 1000 mana straight from my pool, which, once again confirmed that Colbert was one helluva a foe. I couldn’t even imagine how much damage his attack would’ve done had we not the means to completely negate it.

「Nn!」

Fran leapt into the air and delivered a downwards strike with every last bit of her power.

We activated two instances of Elemental Blade, popped Vibration Blade, Magic Poison Fang and Weight Boost as she drew me from a sheath of wind. Her skill with the katana, which had already been remarkable, had become even more refined because of the Sword Lord Arts skill.

Though we were basically in his face, our attack was one that was incredibly easy to read, and thus, Colbert had an easy time avoiding it.

Or at least he would have, had I not stopped him.

I bound him with both Wind Magic and Telekinesis and prevented him from moving either to the left or right. To him, that much was nothing. He easily shrugged it off, but in doing so, lost the instant he needed to avoid Fran’s incoming strike. Realizing that escape had become impossible, he instead quickly opted to use all four of his magical arms to defend himself.

「Haaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!」

「Gaarrgghhh!」

But it wasn’t enough.

We not only split all his magic-made limbs in two, but also left a giant gash running from his left shoulder to the opposite side of his hip. Both his arms were still fine, but the same couldn’t be said for his internals. The majority of the damage had gone straight to his lungs,one of them had even been flat out turned to ash. The flames that cloaked my blade scorched his body and completely turned into a huge mess. The open wound was charred black; smoke wafted off of it alongside a foul, meaty smell.

It looked like he was done for, but we kept going. Colbert was strong. We knew that it was still possible for him to turn everything around despite how grim the situation looked, and so, we continued focusing on refining our magical energies.

『Keep it up! Don’t slow down!』

「Nn!」

Fran brought me to her waist and followed up with a powerful horizontal slash.

I figured that Colbert could still fight, but I never expected him to do as he did. That is, he attempted to avoid the attack by leaping backwards and dodging despite his near fatal wound. He then focused his energies back into his magical arms and once again extended them towards us.

The situation was dire. We’d run out of mana if he hit us even just one more time. If we wanted to win this, we had to end it here and now.

Knowing that, I quickly responded by stretching my blade as far as I could.

「Come on!」

『Reach reach reach!』

「Guaagghhh!」

Colbert reached us right as we reached him. We managed to null his attack, but the same couldn’t be said for him; my blade tore through his gut and caused his blood to splatter across Fran’s face.

He took far too much damage to maintain his concentration, and so, his magic-made arms faded away.

「Sh...it...」

The martial artist fell onto his knees before groaning in pain and collapsing, after which he didn’t even so much as twitch. He was bleeding heavily, crimson liquid leaked from his protruding internal organs began turning the stage into a sea of blood. To make matters worse, he was even badly poisoned.

Things were looking really bad.

Invalidating Colbert’s last attack had used up the rest of my mana. I was flat dry. I couldn’t do anything for him at all.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to be the one to heal him. A member of the guild’s staff immediately rushed over and did what was necessary in order to save him.

And with that staff member’s actions came an enthusiastic announcement.

「It’s over! The match has been decided! What a stunning upset, ladies and gentlemen! Today’s winner is once again, Fran, the Magic Sword Girl! It looks like she just might end up being the most terrifying dark horse in this tournament’s history!」